Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Beijing warned the city’s 20 million
people to prepare for at least another day of smog, and
officials closed some factories and ordered government cars off
the road as pollution remained at hazardous levels.

Visibility was reduced to a few hundred yards in downtown
Beijing and an online merchant reported “overwhelming”
interest in face masks yesterday. A U.S. Embassy pollution
monitor showed that air quality reached hazardous levels for the
19th in 25 days.

Premier Wen Jiabao said China should promote energy-saving
measures, reduce emissions and advance ecological progress in
light of the pollution, the official Xinhua News Agency
reported. The smog has remained dense after hitting record
levels on Jan. 12 and Beijing officials have proposed new rules
aimed at improving air quality.

“I haven’t seen the smog stay so long like this for
years,” a 40-year-old woman who only gave her last name, Zhou,
said after buying two air purifiers for more than 13,000 yuan
($2,000) each in downtown Beijing. “This seems to be the only
solution for us. You used to just open the windows to get fresh
air at home, but now you can’t do that since it’s even dirtier
outside.”

The concentration of PM2.5, the fine air particulates that
pose the greatest human health risk, was 302 micrograms per
cubic meter at 10 a.m., according to the U.S. Embassy monitoring
station. The level at the monitoring station closest to
Tiananmen Square was 189 and had averaged 300 in the past 24
hours, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental
Monitoring Center. The World Health Organization recommends 24-hour exposure to PM2.5 of no higher than 25.

Air Quality

Today’s air quality was given the worst rating on the
city’s six-level scale, which includes a recommendation to avoid
outdoor activities, according to the city monitoring center’s
website.

Beijing will temporarily halt production at 103 companies
that produce high emissions, while government agencies and
state-owned companies were ordered to cut vehicle use by 30
percent through Jan. 31, the Beijing Environment Bureau said on
its website yesterday. The city’s air quality is expected to
improve starting that night, the bureau said.

Authorities should give people hope through actions, a
statement on the central government’s website yesterday cited
Wen as saying at a meeting to discuss a draft of the premier’s
annual work report. Chinese state media have warned that the
smog could threaten the country’s economic growth and raises
questions about policies that sacrifice the environment for the
sake of development.

Flights Canceled

Twenty-three flights were canceled at Beijing Capital
International Airport as of 10:50 a.m. today out of 1,625
scheduled, the airport said on its website. “Low-visibility
weather will continue to affect the airport” today, it said in
a statement yesterday.

Exposure to PM2.5 contributed to 8,572 premature deaths in
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi’an in 2012, and led to
economic losses of $1.08 billion, according to estimates by
Greenpeace and Peking University’s School of Public Health.
China, which the World Bank estimates has 16 of the 20 most-polluted cities globally, is the world’s largest emitter of
greenhouse gases.

“Beijing has a goal of building itself into a world
city,” the China Daily newspaper said in an editorial
yesterday. “What is a world city? It should definitely not be a
city that has most of its winter days shrouded in smog.”

Proposed Rules

Official measurements of PM2.5 rose to 993 in Beijing on
Jan. 12. The city has proposed rules to scrap old vehicles, ban
new cement and steel factories, and impose fines for roadside
vendors barbecuing food on smoggy days.

Further measures to clean up the capital may be difficult
because much of Beijing’s smog comes from surrounding regions,
Ma Jun, a Beijing-based environmentalist and founder of the
Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said in a phone
interview.

“China is the world’s biggest steel producer, and half of
China’s steel is produced in areas around Beijing such as Hebei
and Tianjin, mostly by burning coal,” Ma said. “How can the
region stand this?”

Wang Anshun, Beijing’s newly-appointed mayor, said
pollution should be the local government’s top priority, China
Daily reported yesterday. Beijing will tighten emissions
criteria for new cars to match the strictest European Union
standards starting next month.

Paying Attention

“It’s not going to be easy to solve but it’s not OK not to
pay attention to it,” Wang Yiqing, a 16-year-old student, said
as she walked with a friend in Beijing. “It’s important to
realize the seriousness of the problem.”

Customer service agents at online shops on Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd.’s Taobao marketplace couldn’t handle the demand for
face masks and posted automated messages telling customers which
ones offered the best protection.

“There’s been an explosion of people buying masks recently
because of air pollution in Beijing and Hebei province,” read
one such message. “Please submit orders on your own.”